CONCORD -- When the classroom discussion veered into the topic of illegal immigration last year, Moises Roberto De Leon waited several minutes before wading into the heated debate. When he finally spoke, the De La Salle High School student revealed a secret known only to his closest family and friends.

"I'm in the same situation," he remembers telling his classmates, revealing that his parents brought him to the United States illegally when he was 2 years old. "Many kids are brought here without their knowledge. They shouldn't suffer for what the parents did."

The 18-year-old senior at the all-boys Catholic school is one of thousands of undocumented students who will graduate from a California high school this spring. December's congressional defeat of the Dream Act, a federal bill that laid down a path to citizenship for those brought to the country illegally as children, was a setback to students such as De Leon. But as the public debate quieted, De Leon went on with his life: studying, volunteering at a community center, applying to colleges and searching for the means to afford one of them.

"You never know," said De Leon, who wants to be a biochemist. "All these people could give back something that might help the U.S."

While the youth-driven movement to pass the Dream Act failed in its objective last year, the political fight raised awareness about the estimated half-million Californians younger than 30 years old who could have benefited from the legislation if they graduated high school and pursued higher education or military service. The movement also fortified networks and information-sharing between those students and concerned educators.

"They probably never realized there were people worried about them," said Antioch Councilwoman Mary Rocha, who participated in a conference last week for local students who are living in the country illegally. "No one ever gives them information."

At the Saturday gathering at Diablo Valley College, more than 100 undocumented students and a few dozen parents talked about some of their challenges and how to overcome them. Co-sponsored by the Pleasant Hill college, Pittsburg's Los Medanos College and a group called United Latino Voice of Contra Costa County, of which Rocha is a member, the event was the first of its kind in the county.

"I met other people in the same situation I am," De Leon said.

While his father, a scaffold builder, and his mother, a stay-at-home mom, have strongly supported his education, De Leon said he was lacking expert knowledge about the difficulties he will have in applying for college and getting a job when he does not have legal residency. De Leon had kept his problems to himself because few students at his private high school are illegal immigrants, and if they are, they don't share it. De Leon's two younger siblings also do not share his obstacles: Both are citizens because they were born in the United States.

De Leon, however, was already luckier than many of the students he met over the weekend. His parents are on the road to becoming legal residents and eventually citizens, which means that sometime in his 20s, he should be able to join them, he said.

"These students are asking a lot of questions. Many of them hear the rumors -- chismes, as they call them -- about what they can and cannot do," said Walnut Creek lawyer Nicolas Vaca, who led a workshop Saturday on immigration rights. Vaca's was the second most popular talk at the student conference. The most popular was about how to afford college.

Vaca asked his classroom full of students, "Who was brought here as a kid?" Most of them raised their hands.

"For the first time, they're seeing, hey, look, people care that we're getting an education," Vaca said. "This is something we needed for a long time. They're getting information that's going to help them."

Aware of the sensitivity of the subject matter, and the fear that some students have of making their immigration status known, organizers advertised their event mostly through word of mouth. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not specifically target students for arrest and deportation, but some are picked up in other enforcement operations, and others are delivered to the agency's custody after a run-in with local police.

Latino youths in the past decade became the majority of the under-18 population in Contra Costa County and statewide, according to 2010 census data released this month, but just a fraction of those students are undocumented. A study last year by the Migration Policy Institute estimated that about 7 percent of Latino young people in California do not have legal residency.

Most attendees at Contra Costa's conference were born in Latin America, but Asian-Americans also attended the workshops, a reflection of the diversity of the Bay Area's undocumented population. Students who are illegal immigrants are a minority, but one that society would be ill-advised to abandon, Rocha said.

"The community at large is much richer if we educate our students who are not here legally," Rocha said.

Since 2001, California has allowed undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at public colleges, saving those students thousands of dollars a year. A state Supreme Court ruling last year affirmed the constitutionality of the legislation, known as AB540. Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, has introduced a bill that would repeal AB540. Another lawmaker, Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, seeks to expand the opportunities provided to illegal immigrant students with a bill called the California Dream Act, which would allow those students to compete for financial aid.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

SACRAMENTO, CA - As many as 71 employees of wholesale nursery Matsuda's of Sacramento will collect their final paychecks Friday after an audit by the Department of Homeland Security determined their work documents were "suspect."

The employees under DHS scrutiny represent 85 percent of Matsuda's year-round work force.

"These are good people. We've worked with many of them for up to 20 years," said Matsuda's general manager Ryan Wallace.

Wallace said all 71 employees identified in the audit last week have been given the opportunity to provide bona fide documents, but only a handful said they could do so.

Matsuda's sales manager Tom Wing said the audit could not have come at a worse time as the nursery prepares to ship 130,000 azaleas to its retail customers, which include supermarkets and home centers.

"This is very labor intensive -- to select, clean and load this product. And without the experienced workforce we have, it's going to be that much more difficult to get done," Wing said.

Wing said Matsuda's has contracted with a temporary employment agency to help with short-term staffing.

Among the employees being terminated is Denita, 27, a purchasing agent who came to the United States at the age of 8 and asked that her last name not be used.

"I was raised here in Sacramento. I've been working here (at Matsuda's) for eight years, and now I'm unemployed," she said. Denita's mother also works at Matsuda's and Friday will be her last day, too.

Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said employer audits are lead-driven.

"We have a tip line and that's how we get leads in all kinds of situations," Kice explained. She said leads often come from competitors or disgruntled former employees.

"Our goal with enforcement is not to put a business out of business. It's to gain compliance," Kice said.

Kice said Homeland Security offers a web-based tool called E-Verify that allows employers to check the authenticity of employment documents.

"It's a very useful tool for employers who want to maintain a lawful work force and avoid possible work disruptions," Kice said.

Matsuda's managers said they understood why Homeland Security was taking the enforcement action, but wish they had been given more notice at the start of the busiest time of the year.

"I do wish the government had preceded this with an amnesty program of some sort, but we're having to work with what's been dealt," Wallace said.

The Etowah County jail is still facing the possibility of losing all of its inmates from the department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement who are currently housed in the jail. The government pays the county on a per-inmate, per-day basis, and would lose that money if ICE decides to cut their own costs by moving the inmates out of Etowah County.

The move has been delayed once, but it could still happen June 30, said Sheriff Todd Entrekin. If the ICE detainees are taken out of the Etowah County jail, that could mean layoffs at the jail, loss of grant money and other jobs in parts of the sheriff's office.

"It would affect our funds as far as our school resource officers, courthouse security, our trash pickup out on the streets. It affects everything," Entrekin said.

The decision to move the ICE detainees has not been finalized, however, and Entrekin says he believes he can make a case to show that keeping the detainees in Etowah County will actually save the federal government money.

A Boom Behind BarsPrivate jail operators like the Corrections Corporation of America are making millions off the crackdown on illegal aliens

March 17, 2011, 5:00PM ESTBy Graeme Wood

Selvin Cardenas's three months in the U.S. immigrant detention system began in the usual way, with a knock at his door. At 5 a.m. on Apr. 21, 2009, three men in suits spotted him through the window of his Houston home. "We're here for you," one of them said. "You're Selvin Cardenas. Open up the door."

Cardenas says he arrived in Miami legally from his native Honduras in 1990, at the age of 32, working aboard a ship. He moved to Houston and for nearly two decades lived there working as a pizza deliveryman, dishwasher, and truck driver. He has four kids born in the U.S., in addition to one born in Honduras, and when the agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) appeared, his instinct was to wake his children and say goodbye.

He didn't open the door, but after stalling and calling a lawyer, he decided to cooperate, in the hope that if they took him away without a fuss, they might not arrest his wife, whose immigration status was also precarious. He says the agents were civil throughout the encounter and didn't cuff him, but they did lead him outside and into an unmarked green Tahoe. They cruised around Houston for three hours looking for other potential deportees. Finding none, they drove him to ICE's Houston Contract Detention Facility.

Then, as quickly as ICE detained him, it released him. His freedom lasted about 10 seconds—the time it takes to walk from the ICE building on Greens Rd. to its neighboring building, the Houston Processing Center, a prison owned and operated by Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America (CXW) (CCA). A publicly traded company, CCA is the largest private prison contractor in the U.S. ICE pays CCA about $90 a day per person to keep immigrants behind bars and to manage every aspect of detainees' lives, running its prison much as the government does. The main difference is that CCA locks people up for profit.

The private prison system runs parallel to the U.S. prisons and currently accounts for nearly 10 percent of U.S. state and federal inmates, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Those numbers rise and fall in response to specific policies, and CCA has been accused of lobbying for policies that would fill its cells—such as the increase in enforcement of regulations like the one that snagged Cardenas. Tougher policies have been good for CCA. Since the company started winning immigrant detention contracts in 2000, its stock has rebounded from about a dollar to $23.33, attracting investors such as William Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management, which is now its largest shareholder.

CCA has current contracts with ICE and other federal clients, as well as 19 state prison systems. Its largest competitor, the Geo Group (GEO), is slightly smaller, and together they account for more than $3 billion in gross revenues annually. The next-largest player, MTC, is privately held and does not disclose numbers, but the industry as a whole grosses just under $5 billion per year.

In Houston, ICE is paying CCA to hold about 1,000 alleged illegal immigrants while they are processed for potential deportation. CCA manages them until the moment they leave U.S. soil. If they are Mexican, it puts them in white CCA buses with tinted windows and drives them on its daily run to the Mexican border. If they're from somewhere else, it drives them across the road to the airport, marches them to an airline counter, and watches them fly away.

CCA declined interview requests but did answer some questions by e-mail and issued a written statement that outlined their strategy—to try to do what government does, but more efficiently. When the federal government or states want to build a new prison, they take as long as six years; CCA says they build theirs in 18 months, at less than half the cost. Despite their speed, they claim to meet and exceed public prison standards and point to the high marks their facilities have won from the American Correctional Assn., the main trade organization in the corrections community.

CCA's opponents, such as human rights and pro-union groups, say the firm is run by amoral penny-pinchers who are in a business best left to the state because of the perverse incentives prison companies have to lobby the government to adopt policies that will increase America's already high rate of detention. When every prisoner is a daily $100 bill, say these opponents, you'll do everything you can to get as many of them as you can.

Built in 1984, the Houston Processing Center is located amid the Texas industrial parks near George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Expanded in 2005, it now looks from the outside like a fairly normal government-run jail, save for a maroon and white CCA flag flying alongside the colors of the U.S. and Texas. Planes roar overhead now and then, but the area is generally calm, with none of the highway signs one sees around prisons, warning passersby not to pick up men in orange jumpsuits.

The Houston facility is a stopping point for illegal immigrants from all over the region, and Selvin Cardenas was a typical case. He had had two misdemeanors, and appeared on ICE's radar as a result. A court sent him a summons for an immigration hearing in 2004, but he had moved from his old address. When he failed to show up, the court ordered him deported in absentia. Five years later, ICE tracked him down.

"They were well-educated, good people," Cardenas says of the agents who detained him. "They only put on my handcuffs a block before we arrived." Others are not so lucky: Many arrive handcuffed in CCA buses, which provide door-to-door service from local jails.

After being marched out of the SUV, the agents brought Cardenas into a sallyport, a secured entry-exit point with multi-stage doors. After a couple hours with ICE personnel, who processed him to confirm his identity, catalog his property, and ask about medical conditions (Cardenas has Type 2 diabetes), he crossed into the detention facility, across 20 feet or so of sidewalk that is the magic line separating government territory from CCA's. No one crosses through that chain link-fenced corridor without much clanging of metal gates and bolt locks. Once Cardenas was on the other side, he met only CCA employees and other detainees—"from all over," he says, "Chinese, Lebanese, Indian, but mostly Central American"—until his departure a little less than a week later. The average stay is 21 days, and the longest is about two years.

There is corporate spirit all over the Houston facility. The creamy-white cinder-block walls are painted with the CCA logo. Cardenas's identity bracelet, printed out by CCA, included both an ICE code and a unique number that identified him in the CCA system. He received orientation from CCA officials, explaining the center's protocols, both visible and invisible, such as lines on the floor to indicate zones where the detainees may not walk.

As in most prisons, the inmates take on chores. (CCA wouldn't comment on how much its inmates worked.) Cardenas received a blue uniform, to indicate that he would be grouped with the least dangerous detainees. The worker who handed over his jumpsuit was a fellow inmate, who an ICE official said was paid about a dollar a day by CCA. Orange and red uniforms indicate higher levels of threat, with the red suits reserved mostly for inmates with criminal records, and green ones for problem cases who require segregation from the general population.

One critic of CCA, Bob Libal, the Texas coordinator for anti-private prison coalition Grassroots Leadership, says the corporation devises ways to skim the better-behaved (and therefore cheaper to control) inmates from the general population, leaving government facilities to deal with a more violent and expensive group. For inmates with medical costs, for example, expenses that exceed a certain threshold are often marked for payment not by CCA but by the states that have contracted the facility out. CCA counters that it houses the prisoners it is sent, and the government chooses which ones to send. Along these lines, a study by the Auditor General of the state of Arizona found that the inmates who end up in CCA facilities tend to cost less to handle than the population in state facilities.

Inmates also clean and cook. With their paltry earnings, detainees can buy calling cards (according to Cardenas, the prices are extortionate, with a $9 card allowing only three calls of modest length). Cardenas found the lack of cold water and the quality of food most distressing. "Inadequate," he says, "mal, mal, mal, mal." When he complained, he was told that for a price, he could buy items at the CCA commissary: "They gave a list, and you could choose and buy things—a popsicle, a chicken leg."

Cardenas's short stay was difficult, mostly because of fear for his family. "I was working two jobs to support my family," he says. "I was sad for my kids, because they were little, and for me to go back to Honduras would have been hard on them." He says he was kept in a room filled to capacity with about a dozen other men in bunk beds. The shackles, he said, were the worst experience of all: "When you're not used to that situation, it feels very ugly."

Other detainees have had worse experiences. Mohammad Abu-Kaff, a Jordanian national who had spent all his adult life in the U.S., was sent to CCA after being picked up on a traffic warrant. He had overstayed his latest visa and spent the next year and a half fighting his deportation. During the whole period, he had little to do but wait and pass the time by doing work for CCA at wages that would have been criminal to pay him just a few months before. "I did everything—cooking, cleaning, anything to make the time go by," he says.

Many of Abu-Kaff's complaints about his detention are familiar jailhouse objections. He was denied all but the briefest visits, separated by glass, with his girlfriend, who had to wait two to three hours on busy days to see him. He needed medication for psoriasis, and he says CCA made it difficult for him to get it. (There is, however, a free clinic at the facility, staffed by officers in the U.S. Public Health Service.)

His experience may seem in line with typical jail stories, but it's important to note that Abu-Kaff's detention was not intended to discipline or punish, merely to park him while immigration courts determined when and whether to deport him. No court had convicted him or any other detainee of anything, or imposed any sentence. The traffic warrant alone probably wouldn't have merited much jail time, let alone 18 months.

Abu-Kaff says the guards felt free to inflict needless indignities on him. "They didn't respect Islam," he says. In the days before his 21st birthday, he told a guard that all he wanted was a slice of cake. He says the guard appeared with chocolate cake, brought from the outside, and ate it in front of him.

As might be expected, other CCA inmates have allegedly suffered much worse fates than being taunted with baked goods. Public prisons are well known for their brutality in this country, but it is rare for a publicly traded company to have to answer for violence and fatalities at its facilities. In the late 1990s in Youngstown, Ohio, CCA housed 1,700 violent offenders in a medium-security facility; within a year, 20 had been stabbed and two murdered. And in CCA facilities for immigrant detention, inmates have become lost—sometimes fatally—in the ICE churn. CCA's Eloy Detention Facility in Arizona had more deaths than any other immigration jail listed in a congressional report last year. In one case, a 62-year-old Ghanaian barber named Emmanuel Owusu spent two years in a CCA facility contesting his deportation from the U.S., and died there of diabetes-related heart problems. He had lived in the U.S. for 33 years. In internal documents, ICE employees wondered why he ever ended up in an ICE facility to begin with.

CCA's business depends on the ebb and flow of federal and state budgets—particularly the ebb. "The challenges for our government partners are mounting as budgets are strained and their inmate populations grow," CCA wrote in an e-mail to Bloomberg Businessweek. CCA stands ready to provide solutions, and nearly half of all states have availed themselves of its services.

The demand for prison beds has increased for many reasons, not all related to immigration. Mandatory minimum sentencing laws and three-strikes rules helped expand the U.S. prison population from 200,000 to 2.2 million in the 40 years leading up to 2008, and the peak years of overcrowding in the 1980s and 1990s were a gold rush for private prisons. Other companies, such as the Geo Group (formerly Wackenhut), won separate contracts, largely with state prisons, but CCA remains the champion, controlling around half the private prison beds in the country.

The company has had lean years. In 1999 and 2000, CCA made a series of catastrophic decisions involving real estate trusts, and shares plunged from a high of $146 in 1997 to under a dollar in 2000. In the ensuing decade, as states faced budget shortfalls, the business experienced hiccups in its criminal detention business. "We're in unprecedented times," then-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John D. Ferguson told investors in 2008, as the crunch became acute.

At the same time, CCA received what Alex Friedmann, an associate editor at Prison Legal News and opponent of contract prisons, calls "a federal bailout," in the form of Criminal Alien Requirements, or CARs, which mandate federal contracts to house immigrant detainees. (Friedmann knows CCA well, having served six years, for armed robbery and attempted murder, at a CCA prison in Tennessee.)

A few years later, another initiative, Operation Streamline, further increased the demand for detention space. Previously, when immigrants were caught, they would generally be released, and their transgression would be treated as a civil matter. Under Streamline, prosecutors began going after them for illegal entry as well, which meant longer stays as guests of the U.S. government.

CCA rapidly reestablished itself as the preeminent federal prison contractor. The get-tough approach on immigration that began in the George W. Bush Administration and has continued through the Obama years has left the government pressed for bed space, and CCA is ready to oblige. The federal contracts also more often include minimum occupancy provisions, which guarantee payment for a certain amount of beds even if they go unused. So far there is little danger of that, with some states, such as Arizona, at occupancy rates over 110 percent.

More CCA revenue comes from federal ICE detention than from any single U.S. state. ICE budgets have grown modestly—Obama requested an extra $97 million for 2011, bringing the total allocation to $5.4 billion—but no new funding provides for building or maintaining detention facilities. As CCA CEO Damon Hininger told investors last year, with some understatement, locking up illegal immigrants will provide "meaningful opportunity for the industry for the foreseeable future."

"Last year we removed more criminals out of this office than from any office across the country," Tai Nguyen, the ICE assistant field office director, says with some pride, as he leads a tour through the Houston Processing Center. "And typically, we always exceed last year's numbers." The CCA facility's volume has grown so fast that in 2005, as the illegal immigrant crackdown began in earnest, it underwent an expansion and overhaul that doubled its bed space. In that year alone, ICE nationwide increased its demand for beds from 19,000 spaces to 27,000, as a result of stricter enforcement of immigration law under Michael Chertoff's Homeland Security Dept.

According to Nguyen, the CCA building is "pretty much the same" as an ICE-run facility, except that here the officers watching the detainees are employed by CCA. When Nguyen walks through the building, he's technically a guest. "This is one of the best facilities in the country," he points out, and says Homeland Security's independent inspectors gave it a rating of "superior" on its inspection visit last year. CCA "works for us," he says, "but they know the business better than we do."

CCA has built its facilities and targeted its business carefully, aiming to corner the immigrant detention business. Friedmann, the editor at Prison Legal News, points out that CCA facilities form an archipelago extending all along the U.S. South, from California to Georgia. He says the clustering in the South is also due to labor costs. Workforce turnover is a major issue in the industry and accounts for a large share of operating friction. Friedmann says the conditions at any prison are brutal, and at private prisons they are particularly grave. "See a co-worker shanked in the face a few times," he says, "and you might not want to stick around." In response, CCA says that "turnover has been an inherent challenge for the corrections profession—public or private—given that not everyone is suited for the unique challenges associated with our work." The company points out that Hininger, the current CEO, was himself a former guard at a CCA prison in Leavenworth, Kan., writing, "Our officers are among the best-trained and best-paid professionals in the business."

In the South, prison guards are cheaper and much less unionized than their counterparts in the North. There's nothing wrong with a company doing business where it's most likely to turn a profit, of course, but Friedmann alleges that CCA's eagerness to cut corners makes it less conducive to rehabilitation and more dangerous than the government facilities it replaces. At the Houston Processing Center, because the CCA contract is federal, guards receive a competitive wage. But even there, Abu-Kaff claims that the guards napped on the job and failed to find even obvious contraband such as cell phones.

In the case of immigrants in custody, the rights to challenge administrative detention—as opposed to imprisonment for criminal sentences—are more opaque and harder to exercise, particularly for detainees who speak little English and have only a vague understanding of the justice system. Veronica Sainz, an attorney who provides free legal training at the Houston Processing Center, says confusion and suspicion are common among detainees, and directed even toward advocates like her. "They don't know who we are," she says, "and they think anyone they meet is going to be ICE."

Judy Greene, a criminal justice expert at Justice Strategies, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit research group, says that when contract prisons do save money, they often do so at the expense of their labor. At the privately operated prisons, she says, "labor is cheap, wages are lower, and benefits are few. And across the board you see the impact of that." The rate of escapes, violence, and contraband in the private facilities tends to be higher than in their public counterparts, she says. CCA denies this and says its rates have compared favorably with the public sector. Friedmann tells an anecdote about a CCA guard who requested a 10-foot pole to let him poke into trash cans leaving the prison for the dump, so that he could more easily check whether someone was trying to sneak out in a can. The request for the pole was denied, and a prisoner escaped soon after.

CCA says its facilities perform as well as or better than regular ICE facilities or state prisons: "We view ourselves as part of the system, and a complement to what our government partners do. Both our government partners and our industries have evolved over the last 30 years and don't view it through that frame. We are trying to partner with them and be a complement to the existing system." And it vehemently denies that its business harms the public good—indeed, it claims to trim budgets and provide a more flexible alternative to the public prison industry. Still, many of the industry's critics regard its work as repugnant under any circumstance, because of the perverse incentive of CCA and others to increase the volume of people behind bars, with an emphasis on people ill-suited to advocating for their release. CCA's business model is similar to that of the hotel industry, in that profits come from filling beds with paying customers. And just as the Bellagio markets hard to persuade travel agents to bring their customers to Las Vegas, CCA lobbies hard to get state corrections departments to send their clients to Club CCA.

Its lobbying arm spends on average $1 million to $2 million annually—a minuscule amount, CCA says, compared with the lobbying efforts of comparably sized companies and other organizations, such as public employee unions. In fact, the amount is slightly above average for corporations of its size, as judged by publicly available lobbying records maintained by the website OpenSecrets. CCA's opponents, however, say they are more concerned about the effect of the lobbying than the number of dollars spent. They claim the lobbying has resulted in harsher laws, and thus more demand for CCA bed space.

In 2010, National Public Radio reported that the company had lobbied successfully for the passage of Arizona Senate Bill 1070, which permits police to detain suspected illegal immigrants and bring them to a federal facility. According to the report, the controversial legislation was proposed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a group that brings together legislators and industry members like CCA. When Arizona's Senate passed the law, it created a potentially enormous new reservoir of civil detainees for CCA-operated ICE facilities.

CCA says its ALEC representative participates only to keep abreast of industry developments. The company points out that the bill's sponsor, State Senator Russell Pearce (R), has introduced very similar legislation repeatedly since 2003, and when he brought the bill to ALEC's task force on Public Safety and Elections, its language was already set. Critics such as Friedmann say this only demonstrates CCA's influence, since Pearce presented the legislation fruitlessly for seven years before getting it passed with CCA involved.

Whether or not CCA is responsible for the recent surge in demand, the boom is under way. In October, CCA passed the 80,000-bed mark for the first time. Judy Greene sees the expansion as inexorable. "It's a politically popular solution to a problem that should be managed in a more thoughtful way," she says. "The private sector is there ready with beds, offering the easy answer." CCA's current capacity is more than 90,000 prisoners.

As for those who have moved through the company, Mohammad Abu-Kaff was taken to the airport (in a CCA bus, just as he came in) and deported in December 2007. He's now in Jordan, making a new life in the country where he was born but has come to know as an adult only in the past couple of years.

Selvin Cardenas last saw the inside of a CCA prison a year ago when he shuffled, confined by shackles, out of the Houston Processing Center and into an ICE vehicle that took him to an ICE-run facility in Livingston, Tex. Three months later, he posted bond, and slightly less than a year after that, he was given status as a permanent lawful resident, due to the hardship that deporting him would impose on his American family. He's now back in Houston, driving his own 24-foot truck for a living.

In conversation, Cardenas says he's glad to be out of detention, and unshaken in his faith in his adopted country—even though it briefly paid a profit-seeking private entity to lock him up and prevent him from seeing his wife and children. Other countries' prisons are, after all, often worse. "If you work and act properly in this country, you get respect," he says. "And if you're a criminal, they'll punish you." Who, precisely, "they" are doesn't seem to matter much to him, as long as it seems fair.

WESTAMPTON - Fourteen illegal immigrants were among 27 people crowded into three vans that were stopped in the township Sunday night, police said.

The first group of immigrants was discovered shortly after 11:18 p.m., when an officer noticed a suspicious van in the parking lot of the Home Depot and TGI Friday's restaurant on Route 541.

The van turned off its headlights when the officer approached. Further investigation revealed the van was occupied by many people, none of whom spoke English, police said.

Two other vans approached while the officer was attempting to interview the driver, but quickly left. They were stopped a short distance away by other police officers and also were found to contain multiple people, police said.

A total of 27 people were found in the three vans, including 14 who were determined to be in the country illegally, police said.

The driver of the first van, Rong Zeng He of Brooklyn, was not one of the illegal immigrants but was arrested on an outstanding traffic warrant and taken to Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly, police said. His bail was not available Monday.

Police said the illegal immigrants were turned over to special agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement for processing and transport to detention facilities.

Three of the illegal immigrants had unspecified warrants for their arrest, police said.

Additional details, including the immigrants' ages and nationalities, were not released.

A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said one of the illegal immigrants was being detained pending deportation proceedings. The spokesman did not know the status of the other 13 illegals.

WICHITA, KS - A Mexican national was charged Thursday with assaulting a federal immigration officer with a box cutter. The charges resulted from an investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).

A criminal complaint filed March 24 alleges that Jose Luis Ramirez-Rico, 31, of Wichita, picked up a box cutter and lunged at an ICE ERO officer on March 17 while the officer was looking for another man thought to live at the same address. The ICE ERO officer was not injured.

According to the complaint, Ramirez let three ICE ERO deportation officers into the residence on S. Hydraulic St. in Wichita to look for an immigration fugitive the officers believed was living there. When one of the officers asked Ramirez-Rico about his immigration status, Ramirez-Rico allegedly became nervous, looked at each of three officers, picked up the box cutter with the blade out, then thrust the box cutter toward ICE ERO officer Gregorio Perez.The officers were able to subdue Ramirez-Rico and knock the box cutter out of his hand without anyone getting injured.

According to the complaint, Ramirez had been working at the Kobe Steak House on S. Rock Rd. in Derby, allegedly using false documents. Additional charges in the case are being considered, said U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom, District of Kansas.

If convicted, Ramirez faces up to 20 years in federal prison. As in any criminal case, a person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Anderson, District of Kansas, is prosecuting the case.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

New York (CNN) -- An Argentine woman living illegally in the United States after overstaying her tourist visa will not be deported until the legality of her same-sex marriage is made more clear.

Judge Terry A. Bain and government attorneys agreed Tuesday to halt deportation hearings in Manhattan's immigration court for Monica Alcota, 35, who came to the United States from Argentina more than 10 years ago.

Alcota and Cristina Ojeda, 25, a U.S. citizen, were married in Connecticut in 2010 and are arguing that their marital status should allow Alcota permanent residency, their attorney, Lavi Soloway, said. The Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that gay and lesbian couples have the right to get married.

Soloway said no specific reason was given for the judge's decision to delay the hearing but added that Bain and the government attorneys were in agreement with several general reasons, including President Barack Obama's direction to the Department of Justice to enforce, but not defend, Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA. The act defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman.

"The judge's decision was in line with the Department of Justice's position and was appropriate given that the legality of the deportation will depend on what happens with DOMA," said Nancy Morawetz, a professor of clinical law at New York University Law School in New York City. Morawetz said the decision was important in that many issues involving immigration law depend on marital status.

Attorneys representing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would not comment on the specifics of Alcota's deportation proceedings. But Barbara Gonzalez, the agency's acting press secretary, said, "It is not uncommon for ICE to agree to adjournments."

Gonzalez emphasized that the agency has "not implemented any change in policy" and continues to enforce the law.

The Defense of Marriage Act was signed into law by President Clinton and, in addition to banning federal recognition of same-sex marriages, it also says that states cannot be forced to recognize such marriages from other states.

Steve Rolls, spokesman for Immigration Equality, a national organization that advocates for the rights of same-sex immigrants, praised Tuesday's decision.

"We believe that it is appropriate for the administration, given its new stance on the constitutionality of DOMA, to stop denying green card applications for the spouses of American citizens," Rolls said. He called the decision a "breakthrough moment for lesbian and gay families."

Catholic League President Bill Donahue called the judge's decision "regrettable."

"Two women have been excluded by nature to have a baby," Donahue said. "That's why this entire discussion is based on an attack on nature."

The couple is expected back in court in December to review their petition status.

Undocumented immigrants in Florida who have no criminal record are more likely to be deported than such individuals in other parts of the country.

Half of the 392,000 people deported nationwide in fiscal 2010 were categorized as criminal aliens, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But in Florida, only 5,314 of the 15,345 people deported — 34.6 percent — were labeled criminal aliens. The other 10,031 were noncriminal deportees.

Criminal aliens are those convicted of serious crimes — such as homicide, kidnapping, robbery, major drug offenses, larceny, arson, fraud and human smuggling — or who previously were deported and re-entered the U.S. without permission. A person with repeated misdemeanors also can face deportation.

ICE officials say the Obama administration has placed new emphasis on removing undocumented immigrants who threaten public safety, rather than staging raids that target all illegal immigrants. But the Florida numbers run contrary to that emphasis, immigrant advocates say.

Federal immigration officials, frustrated by the refusal of Chicago and Cook County to join a controversial program aimed at deporting immigrants with criminal records, pressed Mayor Richard M. Daley and Sheriff Tom Dart in an aggressive campaign to obtain participation from reluctant police authorities, according to internal documents.

Last spring, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials tried to put the program, Secure Communities, in effect in Cook County without clear consent from the sheriff’s office. Their advisers proposed asking Rahm Emanuel, then White House chief of staff, to use his Chicago connections to intervene with unresponsive local leaders.

Chicago and Cook County were among several localities nationwide that refused to enroll in the program, which involves sharing fingerprints of anyone arrested with the Department of Homeland Security. Chicago and Cook County cited so-called sanctuary ordinances that prohibit local officials from involvement in immigration enforcement.

The Secure Communities program is in effect in more than 1,000 jurisdictions in 40 states, including Illinois. The federal agency plans to take it nationwide by 2013 and says it does not need local approval to do so.

E-mails and other documents — obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, an immigrant-rights group — show that immigration officials saw Chicago and Cook County among the cities to be test cases for whether localities are allowed to opt out of the program.

Secure Communities is meant to find and deport illegal immigrants found guilty of serious crimes. But the immigration agency’s statistics through February 2011 show that 32 percent of immigrants put into deportation proceedings in Illinois had no criminal convictions. Nationwide, 28 percent had no criminal record.

“The original concept was to get the really bad people out of the country, but are those the only ones you’re getting?” Mr. Dart said. “I could never get a straight answer. If it’s getting murderers and rapists, we’re all for that, but if you’re talking about people pulled over because their license plate isn’t up to date — my staff kept coming back to me saying we never got clarification.”

Brian Hale, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in an e-mail that the agency did not need permission from state or local authorities to carry out Secure Communities. The idea to involve Mr. Emanuel, he said, came from contractors working for the agency and did not reach top ICE officials. He said that ICE was not aware of any contact with Mr. Emanuel.

The e-mails show disagreement within the agency over whether state and local governments can refuse to participate. Local sanctuary ordinances do not bar participation, some argued, because Secure Communities requires local officials only to share fingerprints but does not require them to question or detain suspected illegal immigrants.

The internal documents are dated between August 2009 and October 2010. A February 2010 draft report, prepared by the Secure Communities office in Washington, suggested appealing to Mr. Emanuel to intervene if local officials “continue to refuse to attend briefings or join in a dialogue about the benefits of S.C.”

A spokesman for Mr. Emanuel would not comment on whether ICE contacted him while he was at the White House. As mayor, the spokesman said, Mr. Emanuel will adhere to Chicago’s sanctuary ordinance.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement signs agreements with state police agencies, then seeks to enroll that state’s county and city law enforcement agencies in Secure Communities.

The Illinois State Police joined the program in November 2009, and since then the program has been put in effect in 26 of 102 Illinois counties, including all the counties bordering Cook. The internal documents describe this strategy as forming a “ring” around a “resistant site.”

On April 28, 2010, Immigration and Customs Enforcement sent an e-mail to Mr. Dart’s office saying the Secure Communities program would be activated May 5.

Mr. Dart’s chief of staff at the time, Bill Cunningham, acknowledged the request, by e-mail. He mentioned the sanctuary ordinance but cited federal law that prevented local governments from interfering with immigration enforcement. “The system can be activated without our approval,” he wrote.

Even after John Morton, assistant secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, traveled to Chicago on May 19 to meet with Mr. Dart and Mr. Daley in an apparent effort to secure their cooperation, Chicago and Cook County did not adopt the program.

Then, on May 27, the Illinois State Police told the federal agency to back off. The state police’s legal department did not view Mr. Cunningham’s comment as consent, according to an e-mail.

“This is not good, not good at all!” the Secure Communities regional coordinator, an agency contractor named Dan Cadman, wrote in an internal e-mail. “Time perhaps for a full court press?” Mr. Hale said Mr. Cadman’s contract was terminated on Friday.

Immigration and F.B.I. officials met Aug. 27 and decided the F.B.I. would “reach out to personal contacts” in Chicago and Cook County about Secure Communities. But in November, the office of Gov. Pat Quinn ordered the state police not to allow any more counties to enroll, pending a review of how the program was being carried out. Mr. Hale said the agency was still planning to put the program in effect here.

Immigration-rights advocates say the agency overstepped its bounds. “They were basically conspiring to make it appear Cook County had no choice,” said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which obtained the documents from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

Alderman Roberto Maldonado (26th Ward), who spearheaded the county sanctuary ordinance during his time as a county commissioner, said Secure Communities “would violate the spirit” of the sanctuary ordinance.

A pair of men residing in Central Pennsylvania were charged this week in separate indictments for illegal re-entry into the United States.

The United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement announced Wednesday two men were apprehended in Franklin and Cumberland counties.

According to United States Attorney Peter J. Smith, Elias Jimenez-Lopez, 21, of Guatemala, was charged in a one-count indictment of being in the U.S. illegally.

The indictment alleges that Jimez-Lopez, an alien who was previously arrested and deported from the U.S. in June 2006, did knowingly and unlawfully re-enter the U.S. and was apprehended in Franklin County.

Honorio Torres-Gallosso, 27, of Mexico, also was indicted for for being in the U.S. illegally.

The indictment alleges Torres-Gallosso, an alien who had been arrested and deported from the U.S. in August 2009, did knowingly and unlawfully re-enter the U.S. and was apprehended in Cumberland County.

If convicted, both men face a maximum sentence of up to two years prison and a $250,000 fine.

Investigations were conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and are being prosecuted by Special Assistant United State Attorney Brian G. McDonnell.

MANASSAS, VA - Following an enforcement surge by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), Virginia State Police, and U.S. Marshals Service along with 10 local law enforcement agencies, ICE arrested 130 foreign nationals with criminal records and eight fugitives in the Northern Virginia area.

During a three-day operation that concluded Tuesday, ICE ERO officers located and arrested 130 criminal aliens with prior convictions for a variety of crimes, including rape, assault, burglary and narcotics possession and eight fugitives and three re-entry cases.

"We are a nation with a proud history of immigration. If you come here lawfully, work hard, and play by the rules, the United States welcomes you with open arms," said ICE Director John Morton. "For those who come here unlawfully and commit crimes at the expense of their neighbors and their communities, we will not rest until we find you and send you home."

"Once again through our working relationship with ICE, Virginia has had the opportunity to continue to safeguard its communities from convicted criminals," said Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell. "Despite the legal permanent resident status of some of these individuals, their crimes clearly violated the conditions allowing them to legitimately remain in this country. Removing them from our neighborhoods prevents them from victimizing our Virginia residents and businesses again. I applaud the fine work of our local, state, and federal law enforcement."

"Our Deputy U.S. Marshals, as well as the state and local partners that comprise our task force, were honored to partner with ICE for these critical operations," said John Hackman, U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Virginia. "We were successful in apprehending a number of individuals that were not only in this country illegally, but also had extensive criminal histories and continued to engage in unlawful conduct."

"Our office has had a longstanding working relationship with ICE that has been a great help to our citizens. This on-going effort underscores the importance of the partnership between ICE and local law enforcement in achieving our core mission, which is to enhance public safety, by removing criminal aliens from our communities," said Loudoun County Sheriff O. Simpson.

During this operation, there were 163 total arrests of which 130 were criminal aliens, eight were fugitives, three had already been deported and came back illegally and 22 were non criminals who were issued a notice to appear in immigration court. Of the 163 arrested, 134 were men and 29 were women. They represent more than 32 different nations, including countries in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa.

Some of those arrested during this operation include:

* A 21-year-old Mexican national and legal permanent resident of the United States was arrested in Harrisonburg, Virginia without incident on March 20. His criminal history includes convictions for third degree sexual offense for which he was sentenced to five years in prison. He was taken into ICE custody pending a hearing before an immigration judge.* A 39-year-old Ecuadorian national and legal permanent resident of the United States was arrested in Arlington, Virginia without incident on March 20. His previous criminal convictions include three counts of contributing to delinquency of minor, assault and battery against a family or household member, grand larceny and receiving stolen property, and statutory rape of a child between 13 and 15 years of age. He was taken into ICE custody pending a hearing before an immigration judge.* A 49-year-old El Salvadoran national and legal permanent resident of the United States was arrested in Woodbridge, Virginia without incident on March 20. His criminal history includes convictions for hit and run, DWI, abuse and neglect of children. He was taken into ICE custody pending a hearing before an immigration judge.* A 39-year-old British national and legal permanent resident of the United States was arrested in Madison, Virginia without incident on March 21. His criminal history includes a conviction for aggravated sexual battery of a child. He was taken into ICE custody pending a hearing before an immigration judge.

Because of their serious criminal histories and prior immigration arrest records, five of those arrested during the enforcement surges will face further federal prosecution for reentering the country illegally after a formal deportation.

Arrests were made in the following counties:

Alexandria: 13; Arlington: 11; Augusta: one; Fairfax: 60; Fauquier: 2; Frederick: 11; Harrisonburg: one; Loudoun: 20; Madison: one; Prince William: 37; Shenandoah: three; Warren: one; Washington: two and in the city of Herndon there were two arrests.The foreign nationals detained during these operations who are not being criminally prosecuted will be processed administratively for removal from the United States. Those who have outstanding orders of deportation, or who returned to the United States illegally after being deported, are subject to immediate removal from the country and may be criminally prosecuted. The remaining aliens are in ICE custody awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge, or pending travel arrangements for removal in the near future.

These special enforcement actions were spearheaded by ICE's Fugitive Operations Program, which is responsible for locating, arresting and removing at large criminal aliens and immigration fugitives - aliens who have ignored final orders of deportation issued by the nation's immigration courts. ICE's Fugitive Operations Teams (FOTs) give top priority to cases involving aliens who pose a threat to national security and public safety, including members of transnational street gangs and child sex offenders.

The officers who conducted this week's special operation received substantial assistance from ICE's Fugitive Operations Support Center (FOSC) located in Williston, Vermont. The FOSC conducted exhaustive database checks on the targeted cases to help ensure the viability of the leads and accuracy of the criminal histories. The FOSC was established in 2006 to improve the integrity of the data available on at large criminal aliens and immigration fugitives nationwide. Since its inception, the FOSC has forwarded more than 550,000 case leads to ICE enforcement personnel in the field.

ICE's Fugitive Operations Program is just one facet of the Department of Homeland Security's broader strategy to heighten the federal government's effectiveness at identifying and removing dangerous criminal aliens from the United States. Other initiatives that figure prominently in this effort are the Criminal Alien Program, Secure Communities and the agency's partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies under 287(g).

Largely as a result of these initiatives, for two years in a row, ICE has removed more aliens than were removed in fiscal year 2008. In fiscal year 2010, half of those removed-more than 195,000-were convicted criminals. The fiscal year 2010 statistics represent increases of more than 23,000 removals overall and 81,000 criminal removals compared to fiscal year 2008-a more than 70 percent increase in removal of criminal aliens from the previous administration. 139 CONVICTED CRIMINAL ALIENS AND FUGITIVES ARRESTED IN ICE ENFORCEMENT SURGEPublished 03/27/2011 - 7:44 a.m. CSTMANASSAS, VA - Following an enforcement surge by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), Virginia State Police, and U.S. Marshals Service along with 10 local law enforcement agencies, ICE arrested 130 foreign nationals with criminal records and eight fugitives in the Northern Virginia area.

During a three-day operation that concluded Tuesday, ICE ERO officers located and arrested 130 criminal aliens with prior convictions for a variety of crimes, including rape, assault, burglary and narcotics possession and eight fugitives and three re-entry cases.

"We are a nation with a proud history of immigration. If you come here lawfully, work hard, and play by the rules, the United States welcomes you with open arms," said ICE Director John Morton. "For those who come here unlawfully and commit crimes at the expense of their neighbors and their communities, we will not rest until we find you and send you home."

"Once again through our working relationship with ICE, Virginia has had the opportunity to continue to safeguard its communities from convicted criminals," said Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell. "Despite the legal permanent resident status of some of these individuals, their crimes clearly violated the conditions allowing them to legitimately remain in this country. Removing them from our neighborhoods prevents them from victimizing our Virginia residents and businesses again. I applaud the fine work of our local, state, and federal law enforcement."

"Our Deputy U.S. Marshals, as well as the state and local partners that comprise our task force, were honored to partner with ICE for these critical operations," said John Hackman, U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Virginia. "We were successful in apprehending a number of individuals that were not only in this country illegally, but also had extensive criminal histories and continued to engage in unlawful conduct."

"Our office has had a longstanding working relationship with ICE that has been a great help to our citizens. This on-going effort underscores the importance of the partnership between ICE and local law enforcement in achieving our core mission, which is to enhance public safety, by removing criminal aliens from our communities," said Loudoun County Sheriff O. Simpson.

During this operation, there were 163 total arrests of which 130 were criminal aliens, eight were fugitives, three had already been deported and came back illegally and 22 were non criminals who were issued a notice to appear in immigration court. Of the 163 arrested, 134 were men and 29 were women. They represent more than 32 different nations, including countries in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa.

Some of those arrested during this operation include:

* A 21-year-old Mexican national and legal permanent resident of the United States was arrested in Harrisonburg, Virginia without incident on March 20. His criminal history includes convictions for third degree sexual offense for which he was sentenced to five years in prison. He was taken into ICE custody pending a hearing before an immigration judge.* A 39-year-old Ecuadorian national and legal permanent resident of the United States was arrested in Arlington, Virginia without incident on March 20. His previous criminal convictions include three counts of contributing to delinquency of minor, assault and battery against a family or household member, grand larceny and receiving stolen property, and statutory rape of a child between 13 and 15 years of age. He was taken into ICE custody pending a hearing before an immigration judge.* A 49-year-old El Salvadoran national and legal permanent resident of the United States was arrested in Woodbridge, Virginia without incident on March 20. His criminal history includes convictions for hit and run, DWI, abuse and neglect of children. He was taken into ICE custody pending a hearing before an immigration judge.* A 39-year-old British national and legal permanent resident of the United States was arrested in Madison, Virginia without incident on March 21. His criminal history includes a conviction for aggravated sexual battery of a child. He was taken into ICE custody pending a hearing before an immigration judge.

Because of their serious criminal histories and prior immigration arrest records, five of those arrested during the enforcement surges will face further federal prosecution for reentering the country illegally after a formal deportation.

Arrests were made in the following counties:

Alexandria: 13; Arlington: 11; Augusta: one; Fairfax: 60; Fauquier: 2; Frederick: 11; Harrisonburg: one; Loudoun: 20; Madison: one; Prince William: 37; Shenandoah: three; Warren: one; Washington: two and in the city of Herndon there were two arrests.The foreign nationals detained during these operations who are not being criminally prosecuted will be processed administratively for removal from the United States. Those who have outstanding orders of deportation, or who returned to the United States illegally after being deported, are subject to immediate removal from the country and may be criminally prosecuted. The remaining aliens are in ICE custody awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge, or pending travel arrangements for removal in the near future.

These special enforcement actions were spearheaded by ICE's Fugitive Operations Program, which is responsible for locating, arresting and removing at large criminal aliens and immigration fugitives - aliens who have ignored final orders of deportation issued by the nation's immigration courts. ICE's Fugitive Operations Teams (FOTs) give top priority to cases involving aliens who pose a threat to national security and public safety, including members of transnational street gangs and child sex offenders.

The officers who conducted this week's special operation received substantial assistance from ICE's Fugitive Operations Support Center (FOSC) located in Williston, Vermont. The FOSC conducted exhaustive database checks on the targeted cases to help ensure the viability of the leads and accuracy of the criminal histories. The FOSC was established in 2006 to improve the integrity of the data available on at large criminal aliens and immigration fugitives nationwide. Since its inception, the FOSC has forwarded more than 550,000 case leads to ICE enforcement personnel in the field.

ICE's Fugitive Operations Program is just one facet of the Department of Homeland Security's broader strategy to heighten the federal government's effectiveness at identifying and removing dangerous criminal aliens from the United States. Other initiatives that figure prominently in this effort are the Criminal Alien Program, Secure Communities and the agency's partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies under 287(g).

Largely as a result of these initiatives, for two years in a row, ICE has removed more aliens than were removed in fiscal year 2008. In fiscal year 2010, half of those removed-more than 195,000-were convicted criminals. The fiscal year 2010 statistics represent increases of more than 23,000 removals overall and 81,000 criminal removals compared to fiscal year 2008-a more than 70 percent increase in removal of criminal aliens from the previous administration.

One of the questions left unanswered in this week's feature story "The ICE Storm," about the massive immigration raid that took place earlier this year in Ellensburg, is whether Immigration and Customs agents apprehended all the suspects they were after during their initial investigation. But while at least 30 people were detained on January 20, several accounts from townspeople indicate that the feds have returned recently, taking at least one woman into custody after a late-night visit to her home.

In the story, we reported that ICE and Homeland Security are investigating "the manufacture and purchase of counterfeit identity and employment documents" by illegal immigrants, many of whom worked as maids at hotels in Ellensburg.

According to the Eastern Washington U.S. Attorney's office, 16 people from Ellensburg--all indicted in January by a grand jury--now face criminal charges in federal court. Fifteen are charged with visa fraud and government identification fraud, and four face an additional charge of false claim to U.S. citizenship.

Both [Ellensburg police spokesman Dan] Hansberry and [Kittitas County Undersheriff Clay] Myers also suspect that the arrests made on January 20 are not the end of ICE's work in Ellensburg. "Serving search warrants and making a few arrests doesn't close it," Hansberry says. "I don't know what the next step is [or] how they'll continue, but it wasn't, I believe, intended to be the final step."

Meanwhile, in an e-mail sent earlier this week, Lowell Murphree, spokesman for the Ellensburg Coalition for Humanity, a citizens' group formed in the days following the January 20 raid, writes:

Last Thursday at the Steering Committee meeting, stories were shared by several members indicating a continuing pattern of enforcement actions in which ICE officers are coming to individual residences looking for specific women whose names are on a list in their possession. In at least one case, a woman was detained. In another case, officers entered the house, looked at family photos, and said that they had the wrong house. It is unknown how many such incidents have occurred.

A Hispanic women who lives in one of the trailer parks targeted during the ICE operation says ICE paid a visit to her sister-in-law on March 6. "They came and got somebody at her house," says the woman, who asked to remain anonymous, citing fear of reprisal from law enforcement. "They took this woman. I don't know why they took her, if they had an order for her or what. They came during the night, after 8 p.m."

The woman says she's also heard from friends and relatives that ICE came in the night on a separate occasion earlier this month and detained at least three other people, but she was unable to provide the names of the missing or locations of the alleged incidents.

ICE spokeswoman Lorie Dankers would not confirm whether federal agents have in fact returned to Ellensburg to detain people in connection with the agency's ongoing fraud investigation. "If there have been more criminal arrests, it would be a matter of public record," Dankers says. "Administrative arrests [for immigration violations] are not public. We often confirm the number [of people detained] but we don't provide the names. Those are not public record."

By The Indian American Bar Association of ChicagoPublished: Tuesday, Mar. 22, 2011 - 5:19 am

CHICAGO, March 22, 2011 -- /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") raided and shut down Tri-Valley University ("TVU") nearly two months ago. The impact of this event is still making waves across the country and abroad.

It is estimated that over 90% of TVU's approximately 1,500 students were from India. After the ICE raid and TVU closure, many TVU students have been issued Removal Notices, indicating that the government believes their continued presence in the U.S. is not lawful.

The majority of these students have faced deep anxiety over their status due to inconsistent messages from immigration authorities and the general lack of clear guidelines regarding their status. A former TVU student succinctly captured the essence of this uncertainty stating that "reinstatement applications are not guaranteed, and if denied, students have to leave (the) US as soon as possible."

The Indian American Bar Association of Chicago ("IABA") and its national affiliate organization, the North American South Asian Bar Association ("NASABA"), have taken active steps to help resolve some of the uncertainty facing displaced TVU students. NASABA issued a letter dated February 25, 2011 (available at http://wp.me/pTgfA-9e) to key government officials, including Secretary Janet Napolitano (Department of Homeland Security) and Director John Morton (ICE), raising serious concerns about the legal status and treatment of former TVU students.

Taking a direct approach to assist displaced TVU students, on March 12, 2011, IABA collaborated with the Indian Consulate of Chicago, Chicago Volunteer Legal Services, and volunteer attorneys from the American Immigration Lawyers Association to provide free one-on-one consultations to former TVU students. IABA's efforts have helped advance the objectives of the Indian Foreign Ministry and Consulates, which are actively engaged in this issue, by ensuring that students receive fair treatment and appropriate legal assistance. Nearly 20 students received immigration assistance at the offices of the Indian Consulate (Chicago), which helped them understand their legal options and develop better strategies for maintaining valid immigration status.

IABA's efforts were spearheaded by IABA Pro Bono Chair, Tejas Shah, and supported by Lakshmi Lakshmanan, Michael Jarecki, Melissa Chavin, Ana Mencini, Brian Khodolovsky, and Jaclyn Smith. Speaking about the immigration consultations, Tejas Shah noted that "this event represents the best of what IABA has to offer, i.e., the ability to respond rapidly to a crisis, to coordinate with other South Asian associations, and to provide an important public service in collaboration with partner organizations in Chicago."

A former TVU student-beneficiary of IABA's legal assistance shared the following:

Lawyers from the Indian American Bar Association spent quality time with students analyzing student's detail(ed) circumstances and providing realistic legal options on how to deal with current TVU issues. Lawyers provided clear insight about pros and cons of every legal option available to TVU students...This event was indeed very helpful to every TVU student as (it was the) first time students got consultation from multiple lawyers on a (single) platform.

But as IABA's President, Ashwin Janakiram, reminds, "(o)ur work and responsibilities, as a Bar Association, as a community, and as individual attorneys, has only just begun...Former TVU students continue to need help and resources far beyond the bandwidth of a single bar association." Immigration attorneys interested in assisting former TVU students have several options and avenues to make an impact here.

For additional information about assisting former Tri-Valley University students, or to schedule an interview with IABA leadership, please contact Tejas Shah at 312-775-2422 or clinic@iabachicago.org.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

A city that has taken numerous steps to crack down on illegal immigration is now joining a string of Southern California municipalities that are signing up to tap a federal database aimed at tighter scrutiny of employees' immigration status.

Escondido's measure is modest compared to how others have embraced the free E-Verify tool, an online federal database now used voluntarily by employers nationwide. The north San Diego suburb's City Council voted 4-1 Wednesday to require all city contractors to use the screening for new hires and earlier this month began doing the same for all new city employees earlier this month.

The city will urge - but not require - private businesses to perform enhanced checks on new hires. Lancaster, north of Los Angeles, became the first city in Southern California to require private businesses to use E-Verify in January 2010 and was followed by others including Murrieta, Temecula and Lake Elsinore in the economically battered Inland Empire.

"We don't really want to be a heavy-handed government," said Escondido Mayor Sam Abed, a Lebanese immigrant and former IBM Corp. employee who has made illegal immigration a signature issue. "It's in their self-interest. We hope businesses will realize the benefit."

The proposal has sparked a familiar, if relatively muted, debate in Escondido, a city of 140,000 people that is about 50 percent Latino. Supporters say tougher immigration enforcement is overdue, while critics worry about fueling anti-immigrant sentiment.

In 2006, the City Council voted to require landlords to verify tenants' immigration status. The city dropped the measure before it took effect when a federal judge questioned whether it would survive legal scrutiny.

That same year, police introduced drivers' license checkpoints that resulted in seizures of hundreds of cars a year. Illegal immigrants cannot get drivers' licenses in California, so many lose their cars.

And last year, the city formed an unusually close alliance with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has two agents stationed at police headquarters to respond when people who are pulled over a traffic citation or questioned for other violations are found to have deportation orders or criminal records.

Police say they have turned over more than 400 illegal immigrants to ICE since the alliance, called Operation Joint Effort, began in May.

E-Verify allows employers to run a worker's information against Department of Homeland Security and Social Security databases to check whether the person is permitted to work in the U.S. The Obama administration has made cracking down on employers who hire people here illegally a central part of its immigration enforcement policy.

Much of the criticism of E-Verify has focused on whether U.S. citizens and legal immigrants with permission to work were falsely flagged as illegal workers. Immigration officials have been taking steps to improve such inaccuracies.

Al's Towing, which has a contract to tow vehicles for the police department, signed up E-Verify when owner Josh Park learned the city might make it mandatory. Previously, he examined a job applicant's documents and gave his blessings as long as they looked legitimate to his naked eye. Now, he says, he has an extra safeguard to ensure his employees are legally entitled to work.

"We were required by law to verify to a certain extent, this just allows you to check it," said Park, one of more than 250,000 employers nationwide - including about 100 in Escondido - who have enrolled in E-Verify. "Before, there was no tool to use."

Juan Gonzalez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who makes about $75 a day as a laborer, says the new measure will have limited impact because it is limited to city contractors and doesn't apply to those who hire him.

"There is work, but it's on the farms, landscaping, tearing off roofs - the kind of work that many people won't do for $10 an hour," he said.

A 24-year-old illegal immigrant is in federal custody for having illegally re-entered the United States after being deported last year.

Gustavo Ruiz-Sanchez, a Mexican national living at 115 Braithwaite Lane in Quakertown, was under investigation by Quakertown police Jan. 11 when they called Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, according to federal court records.

An ICE investigator checked Ruiz-Sanchez's records and found he had been charged with DUI in June 2009 and was being held in Bucks County prison. After his relase he was ordered deported June 23, 2010, and physically put back in Mexico June 25, 2010 at the Harlingen, Texas port of entry, according to court records.

Ruiz-Sanchez faces up to two years in federal prison and up to $250,000 in fines.

JACKSON — An Alabama business was raided this month as part of a federal probe that stems from suspected illegal immigrants working construction jobs at Keesler Air Force base in south Mississippi.

Federal immigration officials confirmed the March 17 raid on Hernandez Stucco in Alabaster, Ala., a suburb of Birmingham. It's at least the third business targeted as part of the ongoing investigation, according to attorneys in the case. The other businesses were in Mississippi. Court records also said one of the defendants operated a company in Louisiana.

U.S. District Court records in south Mississippi indicate that a new indictment is coming, though it's not clear who the target is.

The telephone rang unanswered Thursday at a listed phone number for Hernandez Stucco. The phone number was provided by officials at Alabaster City Hall, where the company is registered. City officials said government policy prohibits them from providing the owner's name.

Danielle Bennett, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Wednesday that nobody was arrested during the raid on Hernandez Stucco.

The raid was made public Tuesday in a court filing by defense attorney Joe Sam Owen of Gulfport, who asked for a delay of the April 4 trial of three men already charged in Mississippi. The judge granted the motion Wednesday and then put the trial off until June 6.

Twenty people living in Loudoun were arrested during a three-day operation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that involved the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office, Virginia State Police, the U.S. Marshal Service and nine other local law enforcement agencies.

During operation that concluded Tuesday, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers arrested 130 illegal immigrants with prior convictions for a variety of crimes, including rape, assault, burglary and narcotics possession. Additionally included in those arrested were eight fugitives and three people who had previously been deported and re-entered the country. Loudoun's arrests were mostly nonviolent cases, except for one weapons case, sheriff's office spokesman Vincent DiBenedetto said.

"Sixteen of ours were listed as criminal," he said. "Three were non-criminal which could mean they just did not have all the proper paperwork when we arrested them. They may not have been on the target list."

Those listed as non-criminal did not have previous convictions. The final person had been charged with a hit and run, but there was no disposition. Most of the prior convictions for the Loudoun aliens had been for non-violent crimes such as larceny, forgery and fraud, and many had DUI and hit and run convictions.

"Not everybody arrested was illegal. Many of them were here legally, but committed a crime while they were. When ICE learns of these things they can begin the deportation proceedings," DiBenedetto said.

Eleven of those arrested were from El Salvador, two were from Honduras, and other individuals were from Laos, the Ivory Coast, South Korea, Peru, Bolivia, Canada and the United Kingdom.

"Our office has had a longstanding working relationship with ICE that has been a great help to our citizens," Sheriff Stephen O. Simpson stated. "This on-going effort underscores the importance of the partnership between ICE and local law enforcement in achieving our core mission, which is to enhance public safety, by removing criminal aliens from our communities."

According to ICE, there were 163 total arrests of which 130 were criminal aliens, eight were fugitives, three had already been deported and came back illegally and 22 were non criminals who were issued a notice to appear in immigration court. Of the 163 arrested, 134 were men and 29 were women. They represent more than 32 different nations, including countries in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa.

All of those people arrested in Loudoun were transported by ICE authories to facilities outside of the county for holding. The aliens detained who are not being criminally prosecuted will be processed administratively for removal from the country, according to ICE. Those who have outstanding orders of deportation, or who returned to the United State illegally after being deported, are subject to immediate removal from the country and may be criminally prosecuted. The remaining aliens are in ICE custody awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge, or pending travel arrangements for removal in the near future.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Olga Zanella, an Irving woman who is facing deportation to Mexico, continues to struggle with an uncertain future.

Now her legal team is now taking the case beyond Dallas. They are urging immigration officials in the nation's capital to take over.

"We don't feel that Olga is getting a fair shake in Dallas," said Ralph Isenberg, a Dallas businessman who has been helping Zanella since January.

Zanella, a 20-year-old Irving ISD high school graduate, was thrown into deportation proceedings two years ago after a traffic stop. Her attempts to halt her deportation have been denied twice.

Isenberg sent a letter to the Ombudsman of Homeland Security, January Contreras. In the letter, he claims that the field director at the Dallas Immigrations and Customs Enforcement office, Nuria Prendes, refused to accept the illegal immigrant's new stay of deportation application.

"This field director decides at the end to not even accept the application at all, and that's against the rules," Isenberg said. She has to accept the application."

News 8 contacted the Homeland Security department in Washington D.C., but the agency did not respond to our request.

In a statement from Dallas ICE office spokesman Carl Rusnok, the agency said it stands by its decisions:

"A federal immigration judge issued deportation orders for Olga Zanella and subsequently denied her request to reopen her case. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is responsible for enforcing the orders of immigration judges. In certain limited circumstances, the local ICE field office director has the authority to grant a request for a stay of removal. It has been determined that a stay of removal is not appropriate in this case."

Zanella's parents brought her to the U.S. illegally when she was six years old. She hasn't been to Mexico since, and says she does not know any of her relatives in the state of San Luis Potosi.

In previous interviews, Zanella told us she doesn't want to leave the United Steates. "When I hear the American anthem, I do feel something in my heart... this is my home," she said.

Isenberg believes Zanella would be in danger if deported because of the wave of drug-related crime sweeping the country. He hopes Washington gives Zanella a second chance.

"I need Washington to step in and make certain that the story of Olga Zanella is properly told so that she is not deported," Isenberg said.

A Filipino woman living in Grayslake was arrested and charged with 17 felony counts related to voter fraud Thursday after being accused of falsely pretending to be a U.S. citizen and voting nine times in elections dating back to 2003, federal officials announced.

Maria Azada, 53, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, which worked with an investigator for the Lake County State’s Attorney’s office.

Azada faces charges of perjury, mutilation of election materials, and tampering with voting machines in connection with illegal voting by a non-U.S. citizen, according to an ICE news release.

Azada allegedly admitted that she had voted in an election in February 2009 while attending an immigration benefit. It is illegal for foreign nationals to vote in national or state elections in the United States.

“A subsequent investigation revealed that Azada allegedly voted nine times in primary, general and consolidated elections between 2003 and 2009,” according to the news release.

According to the arrest warrant, Azada allegedly falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen on two Illinois voter registration applications.

If convicted, Azada faces up to five years in state prison on each of the two perjury counts. She also faces up to three years on each of the six counts of tampering with voting machines, and each of the nine counts of mutilation of election materials.

She is also subject to deportation, according to ICE spokeswoman Gail Montenegro.

An Elizabeth police officer was arrested this morning on charges he extorted undocumented immigrants, telling the victims he’d turn them in to the federal government unless they paid him a bribe, authorities said.

Rocco Malgieri, a 43-year-old Brick man with 19 years on the force, faces six counts that include a charge of participating in a pattern of official misconduct, as well as others alleging theft by extortion and bribery, Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow said this afternoon.

He turned himself in this morning, arriving with his attorney, Donald DiGioia, the prosecutor said. He was immediately suspended, without pay, from his job at the city police department, he said.

He has been under investigation for several weeks. His alleged crimes started in February, the prosecutor said.

Malgieri was released after posting a $20,000 property bond. He is scheduled to appear in court on March 30.

Detectives are still probing the case, and ask anyone with more information to call Sgt. Edward Koenig at (908) 527-4914.

María Bolaños has been fighting her deportation for more than a year, since a fight with her husband when she called the police to report that she was a victim of domestic violence. The police arrived at her home and, suspecting her of illegally selling phone cards, ordered her arrest.

Her case is the most well known, but activists say all programs that mix police work with immigration enforcement represent a growing threat to immigrant women who are victims of domestic violence.

“The Department of National Security hasn’t been very effective in identifying victims of domestic violence, even those who have already gotten benefits, such as suspension of deportation under the law VAWA (Violence Against Women Act),” Leslye Orloff, director of the immigrant women’s program at Legal Momentum, said recently before Congress.

With the expansion of the Secure Communities program, which is now operating in every county in California, along with 1,000 counties across the country, that danger is even greater, Orloff said.

Undocumented immigrants who have been victims of domestic violence can apply for residency without a sponsor, through the U Visa and T Visa programs. These are laws that benefit survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking, among other violent crimes.

But when a domestic violence victim calls the police to report a violent incident, police often arrest both the victim and the perpetrator, especially if the couple doesn’t speak English and there is confusion about what happened.

Activists in defense of immigrant women say this shows how dangerous these programs are for public safety, especially in immigrant communities.

"Our poor neighborhoods are full of immigrants; they don’t have the level of police protection. There is simply nothing more critical than the trust between the immigrant and the authorities," said Enid Gonzalez, a member of the legal team at Casa de Maryland, the first organization to help Bolaños. Gonzalez said cases like this make communities think that they shouldn’t call the police for help.

The Secure Communities program matches the fingerprints of all arrestees against a federal immigration database to determine whether they have outstanding deportation orders or are in the country illegally. If someone is arrested and booked, even if the charges are later dropped, his or her fingerprints will end up in these databases and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will be notified. ICE maintains that it is focused on arresting dangerous criminals and prioritizing the most serious crimes over minor offenses. However, it doesn’t always happen this way. A recent analysis of ICE's own data showed that at least 28 percent of those processed under the program were not guilty of any crime; they were simply undocumented immigrants.

ICE recently released 15,000 documents and internal memos about its management of the program following a legal battle led by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, according to the organization’s director, Pablo Alvarado.

“They haven’t told the truth with respect to this program,” he said.

The case of women who have been victims of domestic violence is unique, not only because they have the right to immigration benefits – although many times they don’t know this – but also because the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has tried to implement measures to identify these women, although the program is so wide-reaching that this has been difficult.

At the urging of activists, DHS created a list with thousands of names of women who have received domestic violence benefits or are applying for them and have been approved.

"ICE isn’t supposed to touch these women, but with programs like 287(g) or Secure Communities, this list doesn’t seem to have much effect," said Orloff.

"What we ask is that ICE is committed to ensuring that the person arrested is not the victim. Otherwise, this kind of program becomes very dangerous."

In any case, the effect is to create more fear among women of the police than of the abusers themselves, said Judy London, an attorney with Public Counsel in Los Angeles.

"Ultimately, what concerns us most is not that there are many cases of this, but that it creates fear in the community ... this has definitely damaged the trust between police and the community," said London.

In fact, as a result of cases like that of María Bolaños, some organizations that help battered women are recommending that they don’t call the police, and instead try to call someone else first.